New York on pace for record overtime spending ... again

ALBANY State agencies are on track to spend a record amount on overtime for the second year in a row, according to a report Tuesday from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office.

The state spent $316 million on overtime costs from January through June, DiNapoli found. The record for a single year is $611 million, set just last year.

Compared to the first six months of 2013, the state spent $22 million more this year. Overall, state employees worked 7.8 million hours of overtime over that time, up 7.6 percent.

"This troubling trend could again result in a record-breaking year of overtime hours and overtime pay," DiNapoli said in a statement. "Our state agencies need to examine their practices, get to the root of what is driving high overtime and better manage these costs."

The state's overtime costs have risen steadily in recent years as the state has pared back its overall workforce. State employees who are eligible are generally paid at 1 1/2 times their normal pay during overtime hours.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office pointed to the state's overall personnel costs, which a spokesman said is down $588 million this year when compared to the last year of former Gov. David Paterson's administration in 2010.

"Overtime is used carefully and only when needed," Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in a statement. "The alternative would be a larger, more expensive, state bureaucracy that New York taxpayers can no longer afford."

The bulk of the 2014 overtime costs so far have come from three agencies: the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities and the Office of Mental Health. Combined, they accounted for 62.7 percent of the state's overtime spending.

Add in the state Department of Taxation and Finance, and the four agencies accounted for 97.6 percent of the increased overtime costs for 2014 thus far, according to DiNapoli's office.